Town leaders could have opted to pursue a Superfund designation for the site of a former munitions factory that contaminated hundreds of acres, a pond and parts of the Indian Head River with high levels of mercury, lead and other heavy metals.

But Hanover selectmen worried about the stigma that comes with a Superfund declaration and pushed for a different solution, asking state environmental officials to negotiate a settlement with the three remaining polluters of the site.

More than two years later, the State Department of Environmental Protection still hasn’t struck a deal with the polluters, but last April, a federal settlement reached in a New York courtroom offered some hope for a cleanup of the site.

The $5.15 billion settlement with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. was the nation’s largest-ever settlement of an environmental contamination case, and $73 million of it was earmarked for cleanup of the severely polluted 280-acre site of the former National Fireworks Co., state and federal officials told Hanover leaders.

That was some good news, but selectmen still say they are frustrated with the slow process and lack of information from state officials.

“We have had no response from the DEP,” said selectman Susan Setterland. “Trying to get some answers right now is tough. What is going on with the money from Coakley? We’re wondering where it’s all going.”

Last April Attorney General Martha Coakley said the “historic settlement” would ensure “funds are available to clean up the dangerous, decades-old mercury contamination at the National Fireworks site.”

Coakley’s office said the actual payment of the $73 million is still tied up in court proceedings and a timeline for the payment isn’t known yet.

The site in the southwest corner of Hanover is designated Tier 1A, considered the most severe by the state Department of Environmental Protection because of ecological risks.

Estimates for a comprehensive cleanup reach as high as $158 million, but state officials have pegged the cost to clean up the mercury, lead and other chemicals at between $28 million and $100 million.

Some critics have questioned Hanover’s decision to steer away from Superfund and the EPA.

David Ozonoff, an expert in Superfund sites and a professor at Boston University’s School of Public Health, told the Ledger that the Superfund process is cumbersome and complicated but can be more effective.

Ozonoff said the EPA is more powerful than towns and states when going up against polluters.

Hanover’s former munitions factory is one of many sites in 22 states and one Indian reservation that will benefit from multibillion-dollar settlement with Anadarko Petroleum Corp.

The settlement resolved a legal battle over Tronox Inc., a spinoff of Kerr-McGee Corp., a company Anadarko acquired in 2006.

Page 2 of 2 - Kerr-McGee, founded in 1929, left behind a long legacy of environmental contamination, leaving radioactive waste piles throughout the territory of the Navajo Nation.

The company is perhaps best known for paying $1.86 million to the family of former Oklahoma plutonium worker Karen Silkwood, a whistleblower who claimed to have been contaminated at a Kerr-McGee plant. The company admitted no wrongdoing in the case.

Silkwood died in a car accident in 1974.

Reach Christopher Burrell at cburrell@ledger.com or follow on Twitter @Burrell_Ledger.